It snowed yesterday…
Was chopping firewood when the snow came in…
Took time off from wood-chopping to smell the flowers…
And in the midst of winter, it is but the Japanese plum or ume…
This was taken in the early evening when the sun was still quite high…
Experimented with artificial lighting indoors with this shot…
Back to the snow… took this shot of the fields the next morning…
The snow had melted quite a bit…
We are lucky to have the privilege to enjoy such scenes a few times in a year…
(PS: Just came back from an overseas trip to Chiang Mai…)
(PS: Just came back from an overseas trip to Chiang Mai…)
Potager Y @ Japan 
Do you live in a nearby mountain? I seldom see snow in my neighborhood recently. Anyway ume is so beautiful.
Yes, the mountain is practically in our face… we live at the slopes of a hill, overlooking the Seto NaiKai…
I have heard that some areas of Japan, especially the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, have been getting incredible amounts of snow. Hope you do not get too much dumped on you. The plum blossoms are quite beautiful.
Normally, we get about a few centimeters of snow in a year… the folks up north are having quite a hard time, apparently, with too much snow…
The land must be quite hard now to do any digging.Lovely ume blossoms, Lrong. 🙂
The blooms are beautiful…the snow views are beautiful and Chiang Mai was colorful!Wood is a lovely thing…it is said it warms you twice…when chopping and when burning!
Beautiful photos of the plum blossoms and the snowy fields.
You are lucky to have four seasons.I am lucky not to face the cold cold winter.
Those are beautiful photos, we are in the middle of plum season here at the moment – I hope you'll enjoy the product of those blossoms in 6 months or so.
Chiang Mai must have been a great place to be also. I have not been there before. My friends who have been there like that place a lot. And Lrong, that's a pretty Japanese plum flower. Have another wonderful day 😀
Yes, quite hard on some areas… but the veggie beds are ok because I do not step on them…
We'd like to think, three times, rather than two, Theanne… the chopping, the burning, and the cooking…
Thank you Norma… we try to cherish the views of the fields as much as we can…
When the cold comes in, my skin starts to itch… oooh…
It'd be around June when the rains come in… we are looking forward to the harvesting… We are counting our chickens… 🙂
Steph… that was my fourth or fifth trip to Chiang Mai, and I never get tired of it… it is not crowded like Bangkok, and the air is cool although there is some air pollution…
The place you live and the nature that around you is indeed different in the tropics. Such nice plum flowers as like plastic ones. Lucky you have 4 seasons. Never experienced snow!
Hi Lrong…still here in Wisconsin USA….I MISS Japan…can't wait to get to my garden….soon…got two more weeks till I head for home again…loved your pictures…
Yeap, quite different from the tropics… I love it here,except sometimes, the cold is a bit too much to bear…
Connie… thanks for your message… I believe Wisconsin is full of snow these days…
The pictures of blossoms above are beautiful! The curves and different heights of the field with water at the base…..a piece of natural art…what a view….:-) robbie
Robbie… thank you for your kind words… the said views can be enjoyed from my garden … the curves are really very pretty, as you mentioned…
What a wonderful image…chopping wood in the snow and stopping to smell the plum blossoms 🙂
Like sakura, ume is also once a popular girl name;-). Sakura has a popular song sing usually in karoake but umeboshi is popular in the kitchen.
I still remember your mei hua flower pictures of last year. Does it remind you of the lunar new year and also the Chinese folk song? I wonder if Japanese has a folk song related to the ume?
I do sometimes hum 'What a wonderful world' when chopping wood and/or smelling the flowers… 😉
Hmmm, the thought of the umeboshi is already making me hungry…
Checked with my suweeto haato… looks like we are not aware of a Japanese song on the meihua… probably, the Japanese folks are into sakura as much as the Chinese are into meihua…